Good online plan for training for a century ride in Oct?

[DC41]

My sister is new to cycling, but has set a goal for herself to complete a century ride with the rest of the family in Oct 2020. She's in her early 50s, but is in great shape generally. She likes having a workout plan/schedule to help her visualize her progress to her goal.

I can offer all sorts of tips and general help but don't feel qualified to write a training plan. Short of hiring a coach, have any of you run across a good plan/article, etc. that you thought had merit? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[AJS914]

Bicycling magazine always publishes stuff like that. Googling comes up with this and other plans:

https://www.bicycling.com/training/a200 ... a-century/

That is an 8 week plan though it could be adapted to a longer duration. With 8 months, she could just start doing base miles for 2-3 months, then mix in the once a week tempo/SS rides from the bicycling plan, and then finally add in the sprint intervals a month or two before the event. Every fourth week should probably be a low volume / low intensity easy week.

Eight months is a long time and she could get rained out in October. Maybe you should suggest to her a shorter distance event in the next two months and then one or two metric centuries in about 4-6 months?

[Marin]

If she has good general fitness, riding for a couple of hours is not a problem.

She will need a good fit to be comfortable on the bike and needs to think about nutrition.

[uraqt]

I hate to make this more complicated, however the route has an impact... I ride a fondo every year and this year we are going for the full 100 miles, however it has over 8,000 feet of climbing.. not sure there is any training plan for that but to ride it many many time before : )

100 flat kinda easy : ) couple 40's couple 60's couple 80's and then fake the last 20 : )

C

[Point]

I appreciate it's not the most cost effective way but I've been enjoying Zwift and the training plans you can follow through that. It's had be keeping to a regime and hitting the weekly targetted workouts. May be worth a look into if she has/can get hold of any of the gear?

[Leviathan]

I used spokes.fit which is a fairly generic training plan, but with the advantage of a biweekly email update with their appointed coach. I think its a good balance between price and customization.

[otoman]

TrainerRoad and their plan builder. Perfect for the amount of time out from the event!

[onemanpeloton]

Another vote for Trainer Road. The ideal partner if you don't want to pay for a coach but get pretty close

[DC41]

Thanks for all the help and advice! I'll pass on your suggestions. I'm just excited to get another family member out on a bike!